Dark Days for Newcastle United

Needless to say, things aren't going well at St James Park. The recent departure of Newcastle's "Messiah", Kevin Keegan, has been greeted with furious protests from Newcastle fans.

Mike Ashley and Dennis Wise seem to be the main hate figures, but they still refuse to give in.

Now I'm all for people not getting forced out of clubs, especially if you have ploughed a significant amount of money into the club, like Ashley has. But the level of protest against them is so fierce that I think the best course of action is to sell up.

Take the money and run.

While the off-the-pitch problems have been making the headlines, today's on-field performance by Newcastle was almost as shambolic.

Once a title contending team, Newcastle today found themselves 2-0 down to newly promoted Hull City, before a lucky goal brought it back to a more respectable 2-1 final score.

It may have been more respectable, but it was still unacceptable. Losing 2-1 to Hull City at home would have only served to add fuel to the fire of the fans protests.

Things have got so bad for Newcastle that I can see them having real problems avoiding the drop this season.

Only three things can happen for Newcastle now that would make the fans happy. Either Ashley re-instates Kevin Keegan, which, despite their apparent meeting on Friday, seems incredibly unlikely—unless Mike Ashley agrees to give Keegan total control.

Another thing that could happen is that Ashley somehow manages to bring the Geordie's second messiah—Alan Shearer—to the club as manager. This seems unlikely as Shearer doesn't seem ready to take on a manager's job, especially with the most expectant fans in the country.

If he is brought in alongside another manager then there will always be the shadow of Alan Shearer over that other manager.

The third option is that Mike Ashley, Dennis Wise, and anyone else involved in the recent sagas quit, and let a new group take control.

Whatever happens, this will go down as a dark age in Newcastle United's history.